Great Values - Software Engineer 1904Labs Employee Review

Culture is awesome, always pushing people to grow

Work could be more fulfilling

Look up the review "Be careful and know what you're getting into." It pretty much sums up what you need to know. Pros * Varied experience, quickly. Consulting allows you to work on many projects across industries using different technologies. If you're the kind of person who can pick up skills more or less on the fly, consulting is a great way to beef up your resume. * Remote. As long as you're occasionally in the office, you can work mostly from home. (But see "remote" in the cons for permanently non-St. Louis folks.) * "Innovation Hours." You get 10% of your week to work on your startup, yourself, or your community in a semi-structured way, which most employees seem to enjoy. (Although I think more than a few folks work on their beauty sleep.) * Coworkers. Most coworkers are highly technical, creative folks with good ideas and interesting conversations. * The CIC is a cool place to work.

* Provincial. It's absolutely a good thing to be connected to your community, but 1904 is soooooo St. Louis. It's even in the name, which makes no damned sense to anyone outside of town. * Market. (Corollary to "Provincial" above.) The local market is saturated, but the CEO is so convinced of the word-of-mouth approach that he won't try (or apparently, allow) any other approach. * Market, part deux. Everyone in the organization from top to bottom is expected to first and foremost drum up business, even if your particular job has nada to do with sales. I get that everyone should build relationships with clients and look for new problems to bring back to the *consulting* business, but it's gotten to the point where nothing else matters (c.f., Bob the Builder, below). Past a point, it just seems desperate, especially when people are leaving (lay-offs or other) in droves. * Remote. (Corollary to "Provincial" above.) As a company, 1904labs is truly awful at remote. I've often worked 100% remotely, sometimes even in companies where I have never been in the same room with my co-workers, many of whom live on different continents, and still felt a sense of community and shared responsibility. Here, individual project teams tend to focus on getting the job done, on-prem or otherwise, but for company meetings, if you're remote, you're an outsider. That's not a function of remote work per se, that's a function of a company's commitment to its employees. * Bob the Builder. There's a business v. builder mindset at the top that makes it overtly clear you're only here to make $ for the company and your technical interests make you a weirdo nerd boy to be used, not a valuable resource to be nurtured. * Ego. Employees are constantly told they are the best of the best, the cream of the crop, lauded for their expertise, competence, good judgment, and taste in bands, sports teams, and craft beer. And yes, some people here really are all that. Many just let it go to their heads. * The bench. God help you if land on the bench. If you do, you've got a lay-off target on your back and you should get the hell out now. I'm told there was a golden age when folks could pursue certs and beef up their skills (a net positive for everyone in the long run), but now you *must* work on pre-approved projects, and it's impossible to get any project approved that isn't already pet project of the CEO. As a result, you get a situation where 10 senior people pretend to work on a PowerPoint for 2.5 months, others plea every day for something productive to do, and competing for a paying client becomes Lord of the Flies for everyone. * Not a psychologically safe workplace. Watch your back. Most coworkers are decent people who will help you, but there are a few folks who will eat the food off your plate and then pretend they didn't. Find out who are your allies, and who are, well, not. * The CEO. Old school Reaganite who pretends to be enlightened (and probably believes it) but in the end, is, despite the window dressing, an authoritarian who rules, not guides.